Macross: Do You Remember Love?

Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984) is a Japanese science-fiction anime you can watch online on iFILM. Humanity has built the SDF-1 Macross, a colossal flying fortress that folds into a battle robot. Earth is locked in a war against the giant Zentran race, and the survivors aboard the ship are all that stands between extinction and a future.

Pilot Hikaru is pulled between duty and the heart. He's fallen for Lynn Minmay, a singer whose songs aboard the Macross matter far more than anyone expects. When an enemy strike nearly kills her, Hikaru disobeys orders and saves her, wrecking his fighter to do it. Slowly the crew discovers that music, not firepower, may be what turns the war.

This is the feature-length retelling of the cult series, directed by Noboru Ishiguro and Shoji Kawamori, with Mari Iijima voicing Minmay. Its hand-drawn dogfights are still held up as a benchmark for 1980s mecha animation, and the idea of a pop song as a weapon shaped the whole franchise that followed. A treat for fans of retro sci-fi and anime history. Stream Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984) online on iFILM.